The BRIT Awards were broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted a widely criticised show in which little went as rehearsed,[4] from 1990 to 2006, the event was recorded and broadcast the following night. From 2007, The BRIT Awards reverted to a live broadcast on British television, on 14 February on ITV,[4] that year, comedian Russell Brand was the host and three awards were dropped from the ceremony: Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act and Best Pop Act.[4] For the last time, on 16 February 2010, the venue for The BRITs was the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, the BRIT Awards were held at The O2 in London for the first time in 2011.[5]

The first awards ceremony was in 1977, as "The BRITish Record Industry BRITannia Awards", to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee and was televised by Thames Television. There have been 37 editions to date.[9]

The 1988 BPI Awards was the first of the ceremonies to be broadcast on live television, the BBC had previously broadcast the ceremony from 1985, with the shows from 1982 to 1984 not broadcast on television. The BBC continued to broadcast the renamed BRIT Awards, live in 1989 and pre-recorded from 1990 to 1992. ITV have broadcast the awards since 1993, pre-recorded until 2006 and live from 2007 onwards.[4]BBC Radio 1 has provided backstage radio coverage since 2008.

Since 2014, ITV have aired a launch show in January (The BRITs Are Coming) which reveals some of the artists who have been nominated at the upcoming ceremony, the first host was Nick Grimshaw, followed by Reggie Yates (2015) and Laura Whitmore in 2016. Emma Willis has hosted the show since 2017, which was broadcast live for the first time in 2018.

In 1987 the BPI Awards ceremony was held in the Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel, at the time there was a BBC electricians' strike in effect, and the organisers decided to use a non-TV events production company, called Upfront, to manage the show. Despite the show being picketed, the event was transmitted as intended, for a while, the outdoor broadcast scanner was rocked on its wheels by the protesters and they managed to shut off the power to one of the big GE video screen projectors. Upfront was then asked to organise the following year and persuaded the BPI to move the event to a larger venue, starting the trend that continues to this day, albeit at The O2, and with a different production company (MJK Productions).

In 1989, the ceremony was broadcast live and presented by Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood and singer Samantha Fox, the inexperience of the hosts, an ineffective autocue, and little preparation combined to create an unprofessional show that was poorly received. The hosts continually got their lines mixed up, a pre-recorded message from Michael Jackson was never transmitted and several guest stars arrived late on stage or even at the wrong time, such as Boy George in place of The Four Tops.

The 1990 awards ceremony saw the last public appearance of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.[15] Queen appeared at the ceremony to receive the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.[15][16] Mercury (who had been suffering from AIDS since 1987 but had not disclosed it to the public) did not make a speech, as Brian May did the talking on behalf of the other members, but his gaunt appearance was noticeable.[17]

In 1992, dance/art band The KLF was awarded Best British Group (shared with Simply Red) and were booked to open the show; in an attempt to hijack the event, the duo collaborated with grindcore metal band Extreme Noise Terror to perform a death metal version of the dance song "3 a.m. Eternal" that prompted conductor Sir Georg Solti to walk out in disgust.[18] The performance ended with Bill Drummond firing blanks from a vintage machine gun over the audience and KLF publicist/announcer Scott Piering stating "Ladies and gentlemen, The KLF have now left the music business", the performance indeed marked the end of the duo's musical career, because they released only several one-off performances and one live performance afterwards. Producers of the show then refused to let a motorcycle courier collect the award on behalf of the band. Later, guests arriving for an after-show party witnessed the band dump a dead sheep outside the venue with the message "I died for you – bon appetit" tied around its waist, whilst their Brit Award was reportedly found buried in a field near Stonehenge in 1993.

In 1996, Michael Jackson was given a special Artist of a Generation award, at the ceremony he accompanied his single "Earth Song" with a stage show, culminating with Jackson as a 'Christ-like figure' surrounded by children. Jarvis Cocker, of the band Pulp, mounted the stage in what he would later claim as a protest at this portion of the performance. Cocker ran across the stage, lifting his shirt and pointing his (clothed) backside in Jackson's direction. Cocker was subsequently questioned by the police on suspicion of causing injury towards three of the children in Jackson's performance, who were now on stage.

1996 saw the height of a well-documented feud between Oasis and fellow Britpop band Blur. The differing styles of the bands, coupled with their prominence within the Britpop movement, led the British media to seize upon the rivalry between the bands.[19] Both factions played along, with the Gallaghers taunting Blur at the 1996 BRIT Awards by singing a rendition of "Parklife" when they collected their "Best British Band" award (with Liam changing the lyrics to "Shite-life" and Noel changing them to "Marmite").

In 1999, the Indie band Belle & Sebastian were nominated for Best British Newcomers, despite having released three albums before the 1999 Awards. The award was sponsored by Radio One and voted for online by their listeners, at the time, Steps were arguably Britain's biggest boy/girl pop group and were also nominated. Despite this, the award was won by Belle & Sebastian. On the Saturday after the awards, a story appeared in the press alleging that the group had rigged the vote in their favour, encouraging students from two universities to vote online. However, fans argued that the band had a predominantly large student following, that band member Isobel Campbell had attended one of the universities in question, and in particular, the award ought to be given on artistic merit as opposed to popularity or CD sales.

Dance DJ Brandon Block was told by his friends that he had won an award and had been summoned to the stage to collect it, because of his advanced state of intoxication, he believed them and walked on to the stage, eventually ending up next to a bemused Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and actress Thora Birch, who were about to present the award for Best Soundtrack Album. After Block was removed from the stage by security, Wood aimed an insult in his direction. A series of insults were then traded between the two, both of which were audible through the stage microphone, causing claims that the whole event may have been staged. Wood then threw his drink into Block's face, and the DJ was ejected from the event. Sometime after the incident, Block claimed that he had subsequently apologised to Wood for his behaviour, and Wood had merely brushed it off.

The Spice Girls were set to receive the Outstanding Contribution To Music award at the 2000 BRIT Awards. There was much media speculation before and even during the event as to whether or not former Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell would accept the award with the four remaining members of the group,[20] on the night, however, Halliwell declined to join her former bandmates and instead ensured front-page coverage the following day by performing her solo number 1 single "Bag It Up" straddling a pole between a pair of giant inflatable legs.

After Vic Reeves appeared to forget which award he was presenting, Sharon Osbourne attempted to wrestle the microphone from him, insisted he was drunk and called him a "pissed bastard", she proceeded to make the full announcement herself. The next day it was reported that Reeves was not intoxicated and was hurt by Osbourne's behaviour, the incident has since been ascribed to an autocue malfunction, but Reeves said in his defence that he was trying to read the autocue screen, but he couldn't read it because Osbourne was pushing him out of the way.

Adele won the award for 'British Album of the Year', widely regarded as the most important award. Less than half a minute into her acceptance speech, host James Corden was forced to cut Adele off in order to introduce Blur who were due to perform an eleven-minute set as they had won the 'Outstanding Contribution to Music' award and the ceremony was running over its allotted time.[22] Adele was visibly annoyed and proceeded to raise her middle finger[23] and the producers of the show came under fire on Twitter for the decision.[24] Following the incident Adele said "I got cut off during my speech for Best Album and I flung the middle finger, but that finger was to the suits at The BRIT Awards, not to my fans".[25] Adele received an apology from the show's organisers, who stated; "We send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short. We don't want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night's biggest award, it tops off what's been an incredible year for her."[26] Due to the tight schedule, only three of the five songs Blur played were broadcast on ITV.

At 67 years of age, the influential musician David Bowie became the oldest recipient to date of the Best British Male Solo Artist Award.[27] Bowie used his acceptance speech, delivered in his absence by Kate Moss, to urge Scotland to remain part of the UK in the September 2014 Scottish independence referendum. His speech read: "I'm completely delighted to have a Brit for being the best male – but I am, aren't I Kate? Yes. I think it's a great way to end the day. Thank you very, very much and Scotland stay with us."[28] Bowie's unusual intervention in British politics garnered a significant reaction throughout the UK on social media.[27][29]

When picking up the Best British Group award for Gorillaz, Albarn appeared to be drunk in his speech, slurring his words and starting a rant about Brexit. Taking the microphone while his bandmates hung back, he began: “This country is, believe it or not, quite a small little thing right. “It’s a lovely place and it’s part of a beautiful world but don’t let it become isolated and don’t let yourselves become cut off.” The speech appeared to go on for a while and at one point, the camera cut back to Jack Whitehall, who was supposed to continue presenting although it quickly went back to the speech as Albarn carried on speaking. Once the speech was over, Whitehall responded by saying, “I really didn’t want this to be an Adele moment” referring back to 2012 when Adele was cut off and swore at the audience.

Spice Girls' performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are" (1997)[30][31][edit]

Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, wore a Union Jack dress.[32][33] Spicemania was at its height in the UK and the Spice Girls had just cracked the US as well, reaching number 1 with their debut single and album. Halliwell was originally going to wear an all-black dress, but she thought it was too boring so her sister sewed on a Union Jack tea towel, with a 'peace' sign on the back, the now iconic red, white and blue mini-dress was worn during the Spice Girls' performance of their number one song "Who Do You Think You Are".[34] In 1998 she sold her dress in a charity auction to Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas for a record £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold,[35] this performance won the award for "BRITs Hits 30 – Best Live Performance at The BRIT Awards" at the 2010 BRIT Awards.

Three years following the iconic Spice Girls performance, Halliwell, now a solo artist, performed her new single "Bag It Up" at the 2000 BRIT Awards, the performance featured Halliwell emerging, whilst dancing on with a pole, from a pair of large inflatable female legs. As the performance continued, her male backing dancers stripped to their pinks briefs whilst dancing with the Union Jack flag, it is widely believed that Halliwell lip-synced her performance. In addition to all this, the performance is famous for being performed on the same night that the Spice Girls received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, which Halliwell declined to accept with her former bandmates.

At the 2003 BRIT Awards, Timberlake performed a three-part medley which comprised two of his hit singles, "Cry Me a River" and "Like I Love You", and a cover of Blondie's "Rapture". In addition to Timberlake beat-boxing during the interlude between "Cry Me a River" and "Like I Love You", the performance is most famous for a photo published by the Tabloids the following day which showed Timberlake pinching Minogue's bum. Minogue's appearance was a surprise guest for Timberlake's performance and this performance is regarded one of the best at the BRITs.

British reality group, Girls Aloud, marked their first ever performance at the 2009 ceremony, by performing their single "The Promise", the performance saw the members, including Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Sarah Harding and Kimberley Walsh appear as though they were naked, with their modesty being covered by pink feathers. This performance was nominated in the 2010 ceremony for the "BRITs Hits 30 – Best Live Performance at The BRIT Awards", alongside Oasis and The Who, which the Spice Girls eventually went on to win.[36]

Cheryl performed her debut single "Fight for This Love" at the 2010 BRIT Awards. The performance featured two costumes (one in a white trench coat and another in a black hooded leotard) and sampled the song "Be" by Rowetta Satchell, the performance was mainly noted for being the first time Cheryl had performed without her wedding ring. At the time of the performance, her marriage with footballer Ashley Cole was rumoured to be over following a second round of allegations of infidelity on behalf of Ashley.[37] Whilst at the time she passed this off as a fashion statement rather than a reflection of her personal life, it was later revealed in Cheryl's autobiography that she had broken off the marriage with Ashley by the performance at the BRITs, despite allegations of lip-syncing,[38] which was later clarified to be an ITV technical problem in the broadcast of the performance, Cheryl received strong applause from the audience. Following the performance, host Peter Kay commented "Fight for This Love, never a truer word spoken", believed to be in reference to the breakdown of their marriage.

Adele performed her song "Someone like You" at the 2011 Brits with only a piano accompanying her. Her emotional performance was received with a standing ovation at the O2 Arena and the video received 160 million views on YouTube, the performance launched "Someone Like You" 46 spots up the UK charts to number one, and in the process, made Adele the first artist in the UK since The Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums at the same time. The performance had all lights down and focused on Adele and her piano.

On the date of the 2015 BRIT Awards, Kanye West was announced as a surprise performer following reports of Rihanna performing at the ceremony proven to be false.[39] He performed his new single "All Day" during the live broadcast for the very first time: large sections of the performance were muted by ITV due to explicit language, causing outrage from viewers at home who felt they couldn't enjoy the performance.[40]

Madonna's live return to BRIT Awards after 20 years was widely promoted in the media in the days leading up to the ceremony and during the show itself.[41] During the performance of "Living for Love", she walked onstage wearing an oversized cape. When standing on stairs situated on the stage, the cape's cord failed to separate, so when Madonna's backing dancer pulled the cape behind her, she fell down the stairs and noticeably hit the stage hard,[42] she paused momentarily as her backing music continued, before she managed to separate herself from the cape and then continued performing.[43] In an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, Madonna blamed her fall on a wardrobe malfunction as her cape had been tied too tightly so it could not be unfastened in time, before adding: "I had a little bit of whiplash, I smacked the back of my head. And I had a man standing over me with a flashlight until about 3am to make sure I was compos mentis. I know how to fall, I have fallen off my horse many times."[42]

Katy Perry and Skip Marley's performance of "Chained to the Rhythm" (2017)[30][edit]

In the lead up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Katy Perry was a major endorsement for Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton, performing at many of her rallies and speaking at public events. After Donald Trump won the election, Perry returned to recording her fifth studio album and in February 2017 released "Chained to the Rhythm", during the performance, she was joined onstage by two large skeletal puppets dressed as Trump and British Prime MinisterTheresa May. Many saw this a continuation of the revolution to become a "political artist",[44] the performance was also notable as a backing dancer fell offstage at the end of the performance whilst wearing a house costume.[45]

The performance was notable as there was an apparent technical issue before is began, leading to Kendrick Lamar laying on a glass roof for over a moment before he started singing. However, fans of Lamar claimed that this was part of the performance and was misinterpreted as the backing music kept stopping and starting, also leading to moments of silence, which meant that viewers took to social media in order to see what was going on.

Stormzy, who had won British Male Solo Artist and British Album of the Year for Gang Signs & Prayer closed the 2018 ceremony. Performing under an indoor shower, he opened with "Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2" with masked figures praying behind him before going into a freestyle rap. In his freestyle, he called out Prime Minister Theresa May over the handling of the Grenfell Tower fire; in the performance, he rapped "Theresa May, where's the money for Grenfell? What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell? You criminals and you got the cheek to call us savages. You should do some jail time, you should pay some damages. We should burn your house down and see if you can manage this."[46] He also hit out at tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail asking someone to tell them they can tell them to "suck [his] dick", the performance garnered much media attention, with many lauding it the highlight of the night.[47][48] The following day, a spokesperson for May defended the Prime Minister's response to the disaster, stating that "the PM has been clear that what happened at Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy, which should never be allowed to happen again, she is determined the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell had been ignored for so many years."[49]

According to The BRIT Awards website, the list of eligible artists, albums, and singles is compiled by the Official Charts Company and submitted to the voting academy, which consists of over 1,000 members of the music industry, including the previous year's nominees and winners, the voters use a secure online website to vote, and the voting is scrutinized by Electoral Reform Services.[50]

Take That, band member Robbie Williams and Coldplay have performed the most number of ceremonies, performing seven times each. Rihanna and Adele have performed at four ceremonies each, with all four performances taking place on the same evenings (2008, 2011, 2012 and 2016).

1.
Earls Court Exhibition Centre
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It was located in Earls Court within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and was the largest such venue within central London. The founder was John R. Whitley and the first exhibition included performances by Buffalo Bill Cody as part of the American Exhibition and this was followed by Four National Exhibitions, the title of C. Lowes 1892 book about Earls Court and its founder and it was also used as one of the venues for both the 1948 and 2012 Olympic Games. It was served by two London Underground stations, Earls Court and West Brompton, opposite its entrances on Warwick Road and Old Brompton Road respectively. In 2013 plans to demolish Earls Court were approved in order to make way for a new residential and retail estate on the site, demolition work began on the site in December 2014. Before 1887 Earls Court was farm land attached to Earls Court Manor, with the arrival of a multiplicity of railway companies, and before London Underground became distinct from the cross country railways, the tracks formed a triangle which became waste ground. The introduction of two Underground stations, and a network of rails trapped the land. The idea of introducing entertainment to the area was brought about by John Robinson Whitley, Whitley did not profit from his efforts, yet his desire had decided the future of Earls Court and its purpose in later years. In 1895 the Great Wheel, a huge Ferris wheel, was created for Imre Kiralfys Empire of India Exhibition, a plaque in the press centre commemorates some of these facts and that Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to the shows. Kiralfy had built Earls Court in the style of the 1893 Chicago White City for the Columbian Exposition, in 1935 Earls Court was sold and the new owners decided to construct a show centre to rival any other in the world and to dominate the nearby Olympia exhibition hall. The plan was to create Europes largest structure by volume, the project did not go exactly to plan, it ran over budget and was late in completion. The Earls Court Motor Show immediately followed and later the Commercial Vehicle show, in spite of all the problems during the latter part of its construction, the project was eventually completed at a cost of £1.5 million. Following the construction of Earls Court Two, this building became known sometimes as Earls Court One. In response to the drastic need to increase space, Earls Court Two was constructed at a cost of £100 million. The barrel-roofed hall links with Earls Court One and the halls 17,000 sq m floor was entirely column-free, the hall was opened by Princess Diana on 17 October 1991 for the Motorfair. Earls Court Two was demolished by Capco Plc in 2015 and it was situated on land originally occupied by a mass of sheds linked to the Lillie Bridge Engineering and Railway Depot. Earls Court hosted many shows and exhibitions throughout the years, including the Earls Court Motor Show the Ideal Home Show, each summer from 1950 to 1999 Earls Court was home to the Royal Tournament, the first, oldest and biggest military tattoo in the world. For this the area now occupied by Earls Court Two became a stables, artillery, notable historic exhibitions at the centre include, The American Show,1887

2.
2008 Brit Awards
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The 2008 Brit Awards was the 28th edition of the biggest annual music awards in the United Kingdom. They are run by the British Phonographic Industry and took place on 20 February 2008 at the Earls Court in London, the ceremony attracted 6.1 million viewers,800,000 more than the previous live broadcast. Leona Lewis was nominated for four awards but astonishingly and controversially came away empty-handed, after Vic Reeves appeared to forget which award he was presenting, Sharon Osbourne attempted to wrestle the microphone from him, insisted he was drunk and called him a pissed bastard. She proceeded to make the full announcement herself, the next day it was reported that Reeves was not intoxicated and was hurt by Osbournes behaviour. During the acceptance speech, they made a tirade about the Brits school which forced producers to pull it from the television broadcast. BRIT Awards official website BBC Radio 1

3.
British Phonographic Industry
–
The BPI Limited, commonly known as the British Phonographic Industry or BPI, is the British recorded music industrys trade association. Its membership comprises hundreds of companies including all three major record companies in the UK, and hundreds of independent music labels and small to medium-sized music businesses. It has represented the interests of British record companies since being formally incorporated in 1973 when the aim was to promote British music. In 2007, the legal name was changed from British Phonographic Industry Limited. It founded the annual BRIT Awards for the British music industry in 1977, the organizing company, BRIT Awards Limited, is a fully owned subsidiary of the BPI. Proceeds from both shows go to the BRIT Trust, the arm of the BPI that has donated almost £15m to charitable causes nationwide since its foundation in 1989. In September 2013, the BPI presented the first ever BRITs Icon Award to Sir Elton John, the BPI also endorsed the launch of the Mercury Prize for the Album of the Year in 1992. In September 2008, the BPI became one of the members of UK Music. The BRIT Trust is the music charity actively supporting all types of education across the entire spectrum of music. Through the projects it supports, which include Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and the BRIT School, proceeds from the BRIT Awards and the Classic BRITs shows go to the BRIT Trust, which has donated almost £15m to charitable causes nationwide since its foundation. Opened in September 1991, the BRIT School is a joint venture between The BRIT Trust and the Department for Education and Skills, based at Selhurst in Croydon, the school is the only non fee-paying performing arts school in the UK. It teaches up to 1,100 students each year aged from 14–19 years in music, dance, drama, musical theatre, production, media and art & design. Students are from diverse backgrounds and are not required to stick to their own discipline, dancers learn songwriting. Nor do students have to work/perform in the evening to pay for the tuition, the BPI administers the Platinum, Gold and Silver awards scheme for music releases in the United Kingdom. The level of the award varies depending on the format of the release, member companies do, however, still have the option to certify titles based on shipment levels if they choose to. Since July 2014, audio streaming has also included for singles at a ratio of 100 streams equivalent to 1 unit. From June 2015, audio streams were added to album certifications, according to BPI, they would take the 12 most-streamed tracks from the standard version of an album, with the top two songs down-weighted in line with the average of the rest. The total of these streams will be divided by 1,000, additionally, personnel are also seconded to the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit top support anti-piracy operations

4.
Thames Television
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Thames Television was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding area on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Formed as a joint company, it merged the interests of British Electric Traction owning 49%. It was both a broadcaster and a producer of programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and for networking nationally across the ITV regions. Thames covered a broad spectrum of commercial television, with a strong mix of drama, current affairs. Consequently, ABC applied for both the Midlands seven-day operation and the contract to serve London at the weekend, preferring the latter and it was widely expected that the company would be awarded the weekend franchise. After an impressive application, it was awarded to what became London Weekend Television in a consortium led by David Frost and this led to a serious problem for the ITA as ABC was a popular station, whose productions earned vital foreign currency. Its station management and presentation style were well-admired, and it could have been controversial to dismiss that as a result of administrative changes. Rediffusion had believed that its renewal was a formality, and its application reflected this complacency. In the early days of ITV, the company had worked hard to keep the network on-air during financial crises that threatened the collapse of other companies, particularly Granada Television. It was reported that Rediffusions chairman Sir John Spencer Wills felt the ITA owed his company a debt of gratitude for this, the outcome proposed by the ITA was a shotgun marriage between ABC and Rediffusion. The combination of two companies, announced ITA Chairman Lord Hill, seemed to the Authority to offer the possibility of a programme company of real excellence. The resultant company was awarded the contract to serve London on weekdays, control of the new company would be given to ABC, a move unpopular with Rediffusion. Questioning the ITAs decision, Rediffusion attempted to slow down the merger, the structure of the new company was also a problem. The answer was found to be a new holding company, Thames Television Ltd, ABC had majority control of the new company and the make-up of its board predominantly came from ABC. The use of ABCs old studios at Teddington meant the workforce was predominantly ex-ABC and this name had been previously considered and rejected by London Weekend Television. On 30 July 1968 Thames began broadcasting to London, from the start of broadcasting on Monday until its handover to London Weekend Television at 19,00 GMT on Friday, the former ABC studios at Teddington became Thames main production base. When Thames was formed the new company acquired other properties of the former franchise holders. Rediffusions main studio complex at Wembley was leased to London Weekend Television by order of the ITA before being sold to Lee International in 1977, ABCs Midlands base in Aston, Birmingham, co-owned with ATV, was sold in 1971 when ATV moved to new colour television facilities

5.
BBC One
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BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service and it was renamed BBC TV in 1960, using this name until the launch of sister channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon the BBC TV channel became known as BBC1, with the current spelling adopted in 1997. The channels annual budget for 2012–13 is £1.14 billion, the channel is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBCs other domestic television stations, and therefore shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. It is currently the most watched channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership. As of June 2013 the channel controller for BBC One is Charlotte Moore, the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15,00, Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying, Good afternoon everybody. Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh, the Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later. The competition quickly forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a reduction in its audience. The 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and it therefore decided that Britains third television station should be awarded to the BBC. The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF. The only way to all channels was to use a complex dual-standard 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, receiver. Old 405-line-only sets became obsolete in 1985, when transmission in the standard ended, although standards converters have become available for enthusiasts who collect, BBC1 was based at the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, London between 1960 and 2013. In the weeks leading up to 15 November 1969, BBC1 unofficially transmitted the occasional programme in its new colour system, to test it. At midnight on 15 November, simultaneously with ITV and two years after BBC2, BBC1 officially began 625-line PAL colour programming on UHF with a broadcast of a concert by Petula Clark, colour transmissions could be received on monochrome 625-line sets until the end of analogue broadcasting. In terms of share, the most successful period for BBC1 was under Bryan Cowgill between 1973 and 1977, when the channel achieved an average audience share of 45%. On 30 December 1980, the BBC announced their intention to introduce a new breakfast television service to compete with TV-am. On 17 January 1983, the first edition of Breakfast Time was shown on BBC One, becoming the first UK wide breakfast television service and continued to lead in the rating until 1984. The first major overhaul was to axe the deeply unpopular Sixty Minutes current affairs programme and its replacement was the BBC Six OClock News, a straight new programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot

6.
ITV (TV network)
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ITV is a commercial TV network in the United Kingdom. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990 its legal name has been Channel 3, to distinguish it from the analogue channels at the time, namely BBC1, BBC2. ITV is a network of channels that operate regional television services as well as sharing programmes between each other to be displayed on the entire network. In recent years, several of companies have merged so currently the fifteen franchises are in the hands of two companies. With the exception of Northern Ireland, the ITV brand is the used by ITV plc for the Channel 3 service in these areas. In Northern Ireland, ITV plc uses the brand name UTV, STV Group plc, uses the STV brand for its two franchises of central and northern Scotland. The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the Television Act 1954, the act created the Independent Television Authority to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the Midlands, the first ITV network to launch was Londons Associated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the country was covered by fourteen regional stations. Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. The ITV Network is not owned or operated by one company, since 2016 the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc. The network is regulated by the media regulator Ofcom who is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences, the last major review of the Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. However, due to amalgamation of several of companies since the creation of ITV Network Limited. Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, all licensees have the right to opt out of network programming, however many do not due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing, in exchange for this programming, the ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the EPG of all providers. Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on the terrestrial television platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV in their region. UTV and STV previously broadcast their own services – UTV2 in Northern Ireland and S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, the broadcasters all make use of the Digital 3&4 multiplex, shared with Channel 4

7.
Stormzy
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Michael Omari, better known by his stage name Stormzy, is an English grime and hip hop artist. He won Best Grime Act at the 2014 and 2015 MOBO Awards and was named as an artist to look out for in the BBCs influential Sound of 2015 list. His most successful song to date is the BPI gold-selling Shut Up, the track was then officially released and got to number eight on the UK Singles Chart after Stormzy launched a campaign to reach Christmas number one. His debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, was released on 24 February 2017 and was the first grime album to number one on the UK Albums Chart. Stormzy originates from Thornton Heath, London, and attended Harris Academy South Norwood and he began rapping at the age of 11 and would clash with older rappers at his local youth club. In school, he was excluded several times in Year 8 and was expelled in sixth form, before focusing on his music full-time, he studied for an apprenticeship in Leamington Spa and worked in quality assurance for two years at an oil refinery in Southampton. Stormzy is the cousin of BBC Sound of 2017 nominee Nadia Rose, on 22 October, Stormzy won Best Grime Act at the MOBO awards. Later that month he became the first unsigned rapper to appear on Later with Jools Holland performing the song Not That Deep from Dreamers Disease, in November 2014, Stormzy collaborated with rapper Chip and Shalo on the track Im Fine, also appearing in a video for the song. The track is part of Chips upcoming Believe & Achieve project, on 7 January 2015, Stormzy came number 3 in the BBC Introducing top 5 on Radio 1. In March 2015 he released the single Know Me From, which entered the UK Singles Chart at number 49. The track debuted at number 18 on the UK chart dated 24 September, becoming Stormzys first top 40 hit, on 12 December 2015, Stormzy performed Shut Up during British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshuas ring-walk for his fight versus Dillian Whyte. Originally, Shut Up, released as part of the WickedSkengMan 4 single EP in September 2015, since the performance, it began climbing up the iTunes chart and into the top 40. As a result, Stormzy launched a Christmas number 1 campaign to get the song to number 1 and it has become Stormzys highest-charting single. In April 2016 Stormzy dropped the non-album song Scary before he went into hiatus, after a years hiatus from social media, Stormzy returned in early February 2017 via a series of billboard campaigns across London displaying the hashtag #GSAP24.02. The album title was announced to be Gang Signs & Prayer, the album was released on 24 February 2017 and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on 3 March. As of March 2017 Stormzy is currently on tour, kicking off in Dublin in the Olympia Theatre and ending at Creamfields in Halton, UK. During this tour Stormzy will play the world famous Coachella Valley Music, Stormzy describes himself as a child of grime influenced by the likes of Wiley and Skepta, but also cites R&B singers such as Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill as influences on his sound

8.
Gorillaz
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Gorillaz are a British virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The band consists of four animated members, 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and these members are fictional and are not personas of any real life musicians involved in the project. Their fictional universe is explored through the website and music videos, as well as a number of other media. In reality, Albarn is the only permanent musical contributor, writers and critics have described their music as alternative rock, Britpop, trip hop, hip hop, electronica, indie, dub, reggae and pop. The bands 2001 debut album Gorillaz sold over seven million copies and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, but the nomination was later withdrawn at the bands request. Their second studio album Demon Days went five times platinum in the UK, the band has won other awards, including one Grammy Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, an NME Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, and have been nominated for nine Brit Awards. The bands third album, Plastic Beach, was released in March 2010. Their fourth studio album called The Fall was released in December 2010 as a download for fan club members. After a five-year hiatus, Gorillaz announced their fifth studio album Humanz, musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewletts work, asked him to interview Blur, a band Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewletts comic strip, Hewlett initially thought Albarn was arsey, a wanker, despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxons ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997, Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica. The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV, Hewlett said, If you watch MTV for too long, its a bit like hell – theres nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a band, something that would be a comment on that. Although not released under the Gorillaz name, Albarn has said one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes was Blurs 1997 single On Your Own. The bands first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released in 2000, the bands first single was Clint Eastwood and was released on 5 March 2001, reaching No.4 in the UK. The Phi Life Cypher version of Clint Eastwood appears on the B-side album G Sides, Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled Gorillaz, was released, producing four singles, Clint Eastwood, 19-2000, Tomorrow Comes Today, and Rock the House. In June 2001, 19–2000 charted at No.6 in the UK, the end of the year brought the song 911, a collaboration between Gorillaz and hip hop group D12 and Terry Hall about the September 11 attacks. Gorillaz performed at the 2002 Brit Awards in London on 22 February, the band was nominated for four Brit Awards, including Best British Group, Best British Album and Best British Newcomer, but did not win any awards

9.
Kendrick Lamar
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Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is an American hip hop recording artist and songwriter. He began to gain recognition in 2010, after his first retail release, the following year, Lamar independently released his first studio album, Section.80, which included his debut single, HiiiPoWeR. By that time, he had amassed a large Internet following and collaborated with artists in the hip hop industry, including The Game, Snoop Dogg. Lamar secured a record deal with Aftermath and Interscope Records. His major-label debut, good kid, m. A. A. d city, was released in October 2012 to critical success and it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The record contained the top 40 singles Swimming Pools, Bitch, Dont Kill My Vibe, Lamar won his first Grammy Award for i, lead single from his critical acclaimed third album To Pimp a Butterfly. The album drew on jazz, funk, soul, and spoken word, debuted atop the charts in the US and the UK. In 2016, Lamar released untitled unmastered, a collection of unreleased demos that originated during the recording sessions for Butterfly. Lamar has received a number of accolades over the course of his career, in early 2013, MTV named Lamar the number one Hottest MC in the Game, on their annual list. Time named Lamar one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, Kendrick Lamar was born in Compton, California, the son of a couple from Chicago, Illinois. His first name was given to him by his mother in honor of American singer-songwriter Eddie Kendricks and he grew up on welfare and section 8 housing. As a child, Lamar attended McNair Elementary in the Compton Unified School District, as a teenager, Lamar went on to attend Centennial High School in Compton, where he was a straight-A student. In 2004, at the age of 16, Lamar released his first full-length project, the mixtape was released under Konkrete Jungle Muzik and garnered local recognition for Lamar. The mixtape led to Lamar securing a contract with Top Dawg Entertainment. He began recording material with the label and subsequently released a 26 track mixtape two years later, titled Training Day. Throughout 2006 and 2007, Lamar would appear alongside other up-and-coming West Coast rappers, such as Jay Rock and Ya Boy, under the moniker K-Dot, Lamar was also featured on The Games songs The Cypha and Cali Niggaz. Lamar garnered further recognition after a video of a performance of a Charles Hamilton show surfaced. Lamar did not hesitate and began rapping a verse over the instrumental to Miilkbones Keep It Real, after receiving a co-sign from Lil Wayne, Lamar released his third mixtape in 2009, titled C4, which was heavily themed around Waynes Tha Carter III LP

10.
Lorde
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Ella Marija Lani Yelich-OConnor, better known by her stage name Lorde, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and record producer. Born in Takapuna and raised in Devonport, Auckland, she became interested in performing as a child, in her early teens, she signed with Universal Music Group and was later paired with songwriter and record producer Joel Little, who has co-written and produced most of Lordes works. Her first major release, The Love Club EP, was released commercially in March 2013, the EP reached number two on the national record charts in both New Zealand and Australia. In mid-2013, Lorde released her debut single Royals and it became an international crossover hit and made Lorde the youngest solo artist to achieve a US number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1987. In late 2013, she released her studio album, Pure Heroine. The record topped the charts in New Zealand and Australia. Its following singles included Tennis Court, Team, No Better and Glory, in 2014, Lorde released Yellow Flicker Beat as a single from the soundtrack for The Hunger Games, Mockingjay – Part 1. Lordes music consists of such as dream pop and indietronica. She has earned two Grammy Awards, a Brit Award and ten New Zealand Music Awards, in 2013, she was named among Times most influential teenagers in the world, and in the following year, she was part of Forbess 30 Under 30 list. Of Croatian and Irish descent, Ella Yelich-OConnor was born in Takapuna to Vic OConnor, an engineer, and Sonja Yelich. She was raised in the suburb of Devonport with her two sisters, Jerry and India, and her brother, Angelo. At age five, she joined a group and developed public speaking skills. At that same time, Lorde was attending Vauxhall School and later Belmont Intermediate School and her mother encouraged her to read a range of genres, which Lorde cited as a lyrical influence, I guess my mum influenced my lyrical style by always buying me books. Shed give me a mixture of kid and adult books too, I remember reading Feed by M. T. Anderson when I was six, and her giving me Salinger and Carver at a young age, Lorde played netball at a young age alongside Vauxhall classmate Eliza McCartney, who later became an Olympic bronze medallist in the pole vault. In May 2009, Lorde and musician friend Louis McDonald won the Belmont Intermediate School annual talent show as a duo, on August 13,2009, Lorde and McDonald were invited in for a chat on Jim Moras Afternoons show on Radio New Zealand. There, they performed covers of Pixie Lotts Mama Do and Kings of Leons Use Somebody, in 2009 Maclachlan signed her to UMG for development. While working on her career, she attended Takapuna Grammar School from 2010 to 2013

11.
Foo Fighters
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Foo Fighters is an American rock band, formed in Seattle, Washington in 1994. It was founded by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a project following the dissolution of Nirvana after the death of Kurt Cobain. The group got its name from the UFOs and various phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II. The band began with performances in Portland, Oregon, Goldsmith quit during the recording of the groups second album, The Colour and the Shape, when most of the drum parts were re-recorded by Grohl himself. Smears departure followed soon afterward, though he would rejoin them in 2005 and they were replaced by Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the groups third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The band briefly continued as a trio until Chris Shiflett joined as the lead guitarist after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The band released its album, One by One, in 2002. The group followed that release with the two-disc In Your Honor, Foo Fighters released its sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007. The bands seventh album, Wasting Light, produced by Butch Vig was released in 2011. In November 2014, the eighth studio album, Sonic Highways, was released as an accompanying soundtrack to the Grohl-directed 2014 miniseries of the same name. Over the course of the career, four of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album. As of 2015, the eight albums have sold 12 million copies in the U. S. and 30 million worldwide. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl joined the grunge group Nirvana as its drummer in 1990, during tours, he took a guitar with him and wrote songs. Grohl held back these songs from the rest of the band, he said in 1997, I was in awe of, I thought it was best that I kept my songs to myself. Grohl occasionally booked studio time to record demos and covers of songs he liked, frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home on April 8,1994, and Nirvana subsequently disbanded. Grohl received offers to work with artists, press rumors indicated he might be joining Pearl Jam and he almost accepted a permanent position as drummer in Tom Petty. Ultimately Grohl declined and instead entered Robert Lang Studios in October 1994 to record fifteen of the forty songs he had written. With the exception of a part on X-Static, played by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Dave Grohl played every instrument

12.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions

13.
Backronym
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A backronym or bacronym is a specially constructed phrase that is supposed to be the source of a word that is, or is claimed to be, an acronym. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology, the word is a combination of backward and acronym, and has been defined as a reverse acronym. Its earliest known citation in print is as bacronym in the November 1983 edition of the Washington Post monthly neologism contest. The newspaper quoted winning reader Meredith G. Williams of Potomac, Maryland, defining it as the same as an acronym, except that the words were chosen to fit the letters. An acronym is a derived from the initial letters of the words of a phrase, For example. By contrast, a backronym is constructed by creating a new phrase to fit an existing word, name. Backronyms are also used for comedic effect, as exemplified by NASAs C. O. L. B. E. R. T. NASA named its ISS treadmill the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill after Stephen Colbert, the backronym was a lighthearted compromise in recognition of the comedians ability to sway NASAs online vote for the naming of an ISS module. Backronyms can be constructed for educational purposes, for example to form mnemonics, an example of such a mnemonic is the Apgar score, used to assess the health of newborn babies. Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs use backronyms as teaching tools, similar to such as one day at a time, or Let go, let God. For example, a slip may be expanded as Sobriety Losing Its Priority, backronyms are also created as jokes or as slogans, often expressing consumer loyalties or frustration. For example, the name of the restaurant chain Arbys is a play on the letters RB, referring to the companys founders, an advertising campaign in the 1980s created a backronym with the slogan America’s Roast Beef, Yes Sir. Many companies or products have spawned multiple humorous backronyms, with positive connotations asserted by supporters or negative ones by detractors. For example, the car company Ford was said to stand for First On Race Day, by aficionados, similar backronyms have been directed against many other automakers, such as Fix It Again Tony for Fiat. Backronyms have also coined by military personnel during wartime. The backronym for Spam, Something Posing As Meat, was said to have originated from jaundiced soldiers who were sick of eating canned meat. The British contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq was code-named Operation Telic, backronyms are sometimes created to name laws or programs. Commentators have noted a trend among US lawmakers to devise names that form a desired acronym

14.
Classic Brit Awards
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The Classic BRIT Awards are an annual awards ceremony held in the United Kingdom covering aspects of classical and crossover music, and are the equivalent of pop musics Brit Awards. The awards are organised by the British Phonographic Industry and were inaugurated in 2000 in recognition of the achievements of classical musicians, the ceremony takes place in the Royal Albert Hall each May. The event combines live performances with specially commissioned awards presented throughout the evening, since 2011, the ceremony has been known as Classic BRIT Awards. 38–41 Lifetime Achievement in Music – José Carreras Thursday 13 May 2010

15.
Robbie Williams
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Robert Peter Robbie Williams is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995 and he has also had commercial success as a solo artist. Williams rose to fame in Take Thats first run in the early-to-mid-1990s, Williams also released seven number-one singles. On 15 July 2010, he rejoined Take That, the groups subsequent album Progress became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time. Gary Barlow has since confirmed that Williams had left for a time, although the departure was amicable. He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom, in 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the Greatest Artist of the 1990s. According to the British Phonographic Industry, Williams has been certified for 19.5 million albums and 6.8 million singles in the UK as a solo artist. Williams also topped the 2000–2010 UK airplay chart, racking up almost 50% more plays than the Sugababes at number 2, in 2014 he was awarded the freedom of his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as having a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour. Williams was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and his maternal grandfather was Irish and hailed from Kilkenny. Williams attended St Margaret Ward Catholic School in Tunstall, before attending dance school UKDDF in Tunstall and he participated in several school plays, and his biggest role was that of the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver. In 1990, the sixteen-year-old Williams was the youngest member to join Take That, according to the documentary Take That, For the Record, his mother read an advertisement seeking members for a new boy band and suggested that he try out for the group. He met fellow member Mark Owen on the day of his audition/interview with Nigel Martin-Smith, during the heights of the bands popularity, Williams was known as the extrovert and cheeky practical joker of the band. However, he had conflicts with Martin-Smith over the rules for Take That members. In November 1994, Williamss drug abuse had escalated to the point of his having a drug overdose the night before the group was scheduled to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Barlow explained in interviews that Williams had given up trying to offer creative input, during one of the last rehearsals before the tour commenced, the group confronted Williams about his attitude and stated they wanted to do the tour without him. He agreed to quit and left the group in July 1995, despite the departure of Williams, Take That completed their Nobody Else Tour as a four-piece band. They later disbanded on 13 February 1996, Williamss 22nd birthday, shortly afterwards, Williams was photographed by the press partying with the members of Oasis at Glastonbury Festival. Following his departure, he became the subject of shows and newspapers as he acknowledged his plans to become a solo singer

16.
Musician
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A musician is a person who plays a musical instrument or is musically talented. Anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music may also be referred to as a musician, Musicians can specialize in any musical style, and some musicians play in a variety of different styles. Examples of a musicians possible skills include performing, conducting, singing, composing, arranging, in the Middle Ages, instrumental musicians performed with soft ensembles inside and loud instruments outdoors. Many European musicians of this time catered to the Roman Catholic Church, providing arrangements structured around Gregorian chant structure, vocal pieces were in Latin—the language of church texts of the time—and typically were Church-polyphonic or made up of several simultaneous melodies. Giovanni Palestrina Giovanni Gabrieli Thomas Tallis Claudio Monteverdi Leonardo da Vinci The Baroque period introduced heavy use of counterpoint, vocal and instrumental “color” became more important compared to the Renaissance style of music, and emphasized much of the volume, texture and pace of each piece. George Frideric Handel Johann Sebastian Bach Antonio Vivaldi Classical music was created by musicians who lived during a time of a middle class. Many middle-class inhabitants of France at the time lived under long-time absolute monarchies, because of this, much of the music was performed in environments that were more constrained compared to the flourishing times of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. This age included the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution, a revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry and art, but the common perception of the world. Some major Romantic Period precepts survive, and still affect modern culture, in 20th-century music, composers and musicians rejected the emotion-dominated Romantic period, and strove to represent the world the way they perceived it. Musicians wrote to be. objective, while objects existed on their own terms, while past eras concentrated on spirituality, this new period placed emphasis on physicality and things that were concrete. The advent of recording and mass media in the 20th century caused a boom of all kinds of music—popular music, rock music, electronic music, folk music. Singer Composer Music artist Tour Manager Media related to Musicians at Wikimedia Commons

17.
Take That
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Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, the original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter, with Owen and Williams initially providing backing vocals and Donald. The group have had 28 top 40 singles and 17 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom,12 of which have reached number one, internationally, the band have had 56 number one singles and 37 number one albums. They have received eight Brit Awards—winning awards for Best British Group, Williams left the band in 1995 while the four remaining members completed their world tour and released a final single before splitting up in 1996. The group achieved new success as a four-piece, scoring a string of hits across the UK. Williams rejoined Take That in 2010 for the sixth studio album. Released on 15 November of that year, it was the first album of new material to feature Take Thats original line-up since their 1995 album and it became the fastest-selling album of the 21st century and the second fastest-selling album in British history. In 2014, the recorded a seventh studio album, this time as a trio without Williams. The album, titled III, was released in November 2014 and it was preceded by the single These Days, which became the bands 12th number one single in the UK. In 2012, the band were announced by Forbes as the fifth highest-earning music stars in the world, as of 2017, Take That had sold over 45 million records worldwide. In 1989, Manchester-based Nigel Martin-Smith sought to create a British male vocal singing group modelled after New Kids on the Block, martin-Smiths vision, however, was a teen-orientated group that would appeal to more than one demographic segment of the music industry. Martin-Smith was introduced to young singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, who had been performing in clubs since the age of 15, impressed with Barlows catalogue of self-written material, Martin-Smith decided to build his new-look boy band around Barlows musical abilities. A campaign to audition young men with abilities in dancing and singing followed, at 22, Howard Donald was one of the oldest to audition, but he was chosen after he got time off work as a vehicle painter to continue the process. Prior to auditioning, Jason Orange had appeared as a breakdancer on the television programme The Hit Man. Martin-Smith also selected 18-year-old bank employee Mark Owen and finally 16-year-old Robbie Williams to round out the group, Take Thats first TV appearance was on The Hit Man and Her in 1990, where they performed Barlows self-written, unreleased song, My Kind of Girl. They later appeared a second time to perform Waiting Around, which would become the B-side for the first single, promises and Once Youve Tasted Love were also released as singles but were minor hits in the UK. Take That initially worked the same territory as their American counterparts, singing new jack R&B, urban soul, however they worked their way toward Hi-NRG dance music, while also pursuing an adult contemporary ballad direction

18.
Augury
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Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed flight of birds. When the individual, known as the augur, interpreted these signs, augur and auspices are from the Latin auspicium and auspex, literally one who looks at birds. Depending upon the birds, the auspices from the gods could be favorable or unfavorable, sometimes bribed or politically motivated augures would fabricate unfavorable auspices in order to delay certain state functions, such as elections. Pliny the Elder attributes the invention of auspicy to Tiresias the seer of Thebes, plato notes that hepatoscopy held greater prestige than augury by means of birds. One of the most famous auspices is the one which is connected with the founding of Rome, once the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, arrived at the Palatine Hill, the two argued over where the exact position of the city should be. Romulus was set on building the city upon the Palatine, but Remus wanted to build the city on the strategic, the two agreed to settle their argument by testing their abilities as augures and by the will of the gods. Each took a seat on the ground apart from one another, according to unanimous testimony from ancient sources the use of auspices as a means to decipher the will of the gods was more ancient than Rome itself. The use of the word is associated with Latins as well as the earliest Roman citizens. Stoics, for instance, maintained that if there are gods, they care for men, in ancient Rome, the appointment and inauguration of any magistrate, decisions made within the people’s assembly and the advancement of any campaign always required a positive auspicium. Unlike in Greece where oracles played the role of messenger of the gods, Auspices showed Romans what they were to do, or not to do, giving no explanation for the decision made except that it was the will of the gods. It would be difficult to execute any public act without consulting the auspices, elections, the passing of laws, and initiation of wars were all put on hold until the people were assured the gods agreed with their actions. The men who interpreted these signs, revealing the will of the gods were called augures, the magistrates were also expected to understand the basic interpretations as they were often expected to take the auspices whenever they undertook any public business. Until 300 BC only patricians could become augures, plebeian assemblies were forbidden to take augury and hence had no input as to whether a certain law, war or festival should occur. Cicero, an augur himself, accounts how the monopoly of the created a useful barrier to the encroachment of the populares. With this new power it was not only possible for plebeians to determine the gods will in their favor, there were five different types of auspices. Of these, the last three formed no part of the ancient auspices, ex caelo This auspice involved the observation of thunder and lightning and was often seen as the most important auspice. Whenever an augur reported that Jupiter had sent down thunder and lightning, ex avibus Though auspices were typically bird signs, not all birds in the sky were seen as symbols of the will of the Gods. There were two classes of birds, Oscines, who gave auspices via their singing, and Alites, the Oscines included ravens, crows, owls and hens, each offering either a favorable omen or an unfavorable depending on which side of the Augurs designated area they appeared on

19.
MasterCard
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The Global Operations Headquarters is located in OFallon, Missouri, United States, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Mastercard Worldwide has been a traded company since 2006. Prior to its public offering, MasterCard Worldwide was a cooperative owned by the more than 25,000 financial institutions that issue its branded cards. From 1966 to 1979, Mastercard was called Interbank and Master Charge, the original banks behind MasterCard were United California Bank, Wells Fargo, Crocker National Bank, and the Bank of California. In 1966, the group of California banks formed the Interbank Card Association. With the help of New Yorks Marine Midland Bank, now HSBC Bank USA, the card was given a significant boost in 1969, when First National City Bank joined, merging its proprietary Everything Card with Master Charge. In 1968, the ICA and Eurocard started an alliance, which effectively allowed the ICA access to the European market. The Access card system from the United Kingdom joined the ICA/Eurocard alliance in 1972, in December 1979, Master Charge, The Interbank Card was renamed simply MasterCard. In the early 1990s MasterCard then bought the British Access card, in October 2002, MasterCard International merged with Europay International SA, another large credit-card issuer association, which for many years issued cards under the name Eurocard. In Mid-2006, MasterCard International underwent another change to MasterCard Worldwide. This was done in order to suggest a more global scale of operations, in addition, the company introduced a new corporate logo adding a third circle to the two that had been used in the past. A new corporate tagline was introduced at the time, The Heart of Commerce. In August 2010, MasterCard expanded its offering with the acquisition of DataCash. In March 2012, MasterCard announced the expansion of its mobile contactless payments program, in September 2014, MasterCard acquired Australian leading rewards program manager company Pinpoint for an undisclosed amount. MasterCard teamed with Apple in September 2014, to incorporate a new mobile wallet feature into Apples new iPhone models, enabling users to more readily use their MasterCard, and other credit cards. The company, which had organized as a cooperative of banks, had an initial public offering on May 25,2006 at 39.00 USD. The stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol MA with the market capitalization of $105. 15B, MasterCard, along with Visa, has been sued in a class action by ATM operators that claims the credit card networks rules effectively fix ATM access fees. The suit claims that this is a restraint on trade in violation of federal law, the lawsuit was filed by the National ATM Council and independent operators of automated teller machines

20.
Culture of the United Kingdom
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The wider culture of Europe has also influenced British culture, and Humanism, Protestantism and representative democracy developed from broader Western culture. British literature, music, cinema, art, theatre, comedy, media, television, philosophy, architecture, the United Kingdom is also prominent in science and technology, producing world-leading scientists and inventions. Sport is an important part of British culture, numerous sports originated in the country, the UK has been described as a cultural superpower, and London has been described as a world cultural capital. The Industrial Revolution, which started in the UK, had an effect on the socio-economic. These states are collectively known as the Anglosphere, and are among Britains closest allies. In turn the empire also influenced British culture, particularly British cuisine, the cultures of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are diverse and have varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness. First spoken in early medieval England, the English language is the de facto language of the UK. Individual countries within the UK have frameworks for the promotion of their indigenous languages, Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. There is also a campaign under way to recognise Scots as a language in Scotland, the Cornish language enjoys neither official recognition nor promotion by the state in Cornwall. Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the UK Government has committed to the promotion of linguistic traditions. The United Kingdom has ratified the charter for, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Scots, Cornish, British Sign Language is also a recognised language. Owing to its history, dialects and regional accents vary amongst the four countries of the United Kingdom. Some cities in close proximity have a different dialect and accent, such as Scousers from Liverpool, notable Scouse speakers include John Lennon and Paul McCartney from The Beatles while Mancunians include Liam and Noel Gallagher from Oasis. Received Pronunciation is the accent of standard English in the UK, brummie is the dialect of natives of Birmingham in the west midlands of England – notable Brummies include rock musicians Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Lynne, and Rob Halford. Geordie is the dialect of people from Tyneside in northeast England – musicians Brian Johnson, Mark Knopfler, notable exponents of the Scottish accent include Sean Connery, comedian Billy Connolly, and The Proclaimers. The West Country accent from southwest England is identified in film as pirate speech – cartoon-like Ooh arr, talk is very similar, while famous pirates hailed from this region, including Blackbeard, West Country native Robert Newtons performance as Long John Silver in films standardised the pirate voice. The Northern Irish accent includes golfer Rory McIlroy and actor Liam Neeson, the early 18th century is known as the Augustan Age of English literature. From the late 18th century, the Romantic period showed a flowering of poetry comparable with the Renaissance 200 years earlier, in Scotland the poetry of Robert Burns revived interest in Scots literature, and the Weaver Poets of Ulster were influenced by literature from Scotland

21.
Freddie Mercury
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Freddie Mercury was a British singer, songwriter and record producer, known as the lead vocalist and co-principal songwriter of the rock band Queen. He also became known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range, Mercury wrote and composed numerous hits for Queen, occasionally served as a producer and guest musician for other artists, and concurrently led a solo career while performing with Queen. Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 due to complications from AIDS, in 1992 Mercury was posthumously awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and had a tribute concert held at Wembley Stadium, London. In 2002, he was placed at number 58 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Mercury was born in the British protectorate of Sultanate of Zanzibar, East Africa. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Parsis from the Gujarat region of the province of Bombay Presidency in British India. The family surname is derived from the town of Bulsar in southern Gujarat, as Parsis, Mercury and his family practised the Zoroastrian religion. The Bulsara family had moved to Zanzibar so that his father could continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office and he had a younger sister, Kashmira. Mercury spent most of his childhood in India and began taking lessons at the age of seven. In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peters School, at the age of 12, he formed a school band, The Hectics, and covered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard. The only music he listened to, and played, was Western pop music, a friend from the time recalls that he had an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano. It was also at St. Peters where he began to call himself Freddie, at the age of 17, Mercury and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution, in which thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed. The family moved into a house at 22 Gladstone Avenue, Feltham, Middlesex. Mercury enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic in West London where he studied art and he ultimately earned a diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, later using these skills to design the Queen heraldic arms. A British citizen at birth, Mercury remained so for the rest of his life, following graduation, Mercury joined a series of bands and sold second-hand clothes in the Kensington Market in London with girlfriend Mary Austin. He also held a job at Heathrow Airport, friends from the time remember him as a quiet and shy young man who showed a great deal of interest in music. In 1969 he joined the Liverpool-based band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage and he lived briefly in a flat above the Liverpool pub, The Dovedale Towers. When this band failed to take off, he joined a band called Sour Milk Sea. However, by early 1970 this group had broken up as well, in April 1970 Mercury joined guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile

22.
Jarvis Cocker
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Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician, singer-songwriter, actor, voice actor, radio presenter and music video director. He initially found success as the frontman of the band Pulp, following Pulps hiatus, Cocker has led a successful solo career, and presents a BBC Radio 6 Music show called Jarvis Cockers Sunday Service. Cocker was born in Sheffield, growing up in the Intake area of the city and his father, Mac Cocker, a DJ and actor, left the family and moved to Sydney when Cocker was seven, and had no contact with Cocker or his sister, Saskia. Thereafter, both were brought up by their mother, who became a Conservative councillor. Cocker credits his upbringing, almost exclusively in female company, for his interest in how women think and what they have to say. He wrote a song about being abandoned by his father, working briefly as a butler, by the time of his sons visit, Mac Cocker had moved to a hippie commune in Darwin, Northern Territory. Cocker says he has forgiven his father for abandoning them, saying, Cocker founded Arabacus Pulp at the age of 15 while he was still at The City School of Sheffield. After numerous lineup changes, and shortening the name to Pulp, Cocker was Pulps frontman, and part of his trademark image was his glasses, which seemed to stay magically on his face no matter what antics he performed. This feat was achieved using a rubber band round the back of his glasses. Pulp released two albums to critical acclaim, though neither achieved the commercial success of Different Class. After releasing a greatest hits album, the band went on hiatus from 2003 to 2010, Cocker is also renowned for his wit and observations of the cultural scene. He was a frequent guest on TV shows in the 1990s, in the series, he took a trip across the globe, meeting so-called outsider artists, people who create wacky and wonderful works of art, trying to understand what compelled them to do so. Cockers penchant for TV appearances was reflected in a parody of Common People which was featured on the comedy show Spitting Image in 1996. Cocker invaded the stage at the 1996 Brit Awards in a spur of the moment protest against Michael Jacksons performance, Jackson was performing his hit Earth Song while surrounded by children and a rabbi. Cocker and his friend Peter Mansell performed a stage invasion in protest. Cocker was detained and interviewed by the police on suspicion of assault and he was accompanied by comedian Bob Mortimer, a former solicitor, who represented him in that capacity. He was subsequently released without charge, opinions from the press on Cockers actions were mixed. Melody Makers edition of 2 March 1996, for example, suggested Cocker should be knighted, regarding his actions, Cocker said, My actions were a form of protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing

23.
Michael Jackson
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Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor, and philanthropist. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance, the eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5. He began his career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music, the popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jacksons 1987 album Bad spawned the U. S and he continued to innovate with videos such as Black or White and Scream throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and his distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres. Thriller is the album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jacksons other albums, including Off the Wall, Bad, Dangerous and he is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when Love Never Felt So Good reached number nine on May 21,2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, aspects of Jacksons personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of child sexual abuse allegations. While preparing for his concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25,2009. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Jacksons death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the dead celebrity with earnings of $825 million in 2016. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29,1958 and his mother, Katherine Esther Scruse, was a devout Jehovahs Witness. She played clarinet and piano and once aspired to be a country-and-western performer, michaels father, Joseph Walter Joe Jackson, a former boxer, was a steelworker at U. S. Steel

24.
Union Jack dress
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The Union Jack dress was an item of clothing worn by singer Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls at the 1997 BRIT Awards. The mini dress featured a flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, on the front, and a white peace symbol emblazoned on the black-coloured back of the dress. The next day the images of the made the front page of various newspapers around the world. The dress has become synonymous with the Spice Girls, Halliwell, in 2010, the performance in the Union Jack dress won Most Memorable Performance of 30 Years at the Brit Awards. The dress holds the Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of popstar clothing dealt at auction, at the 1997 BRIT Awards the Spice Girls were scheduled to perform, as well as being nominated for five awards, two of which they won. The black Gucci mini dress which Halliwell was given to perform in concerned her, then Halliwell decided she wanted to celebrate being British, so she asked her sister to stitch on a Union Jack tea towel to the front as a patriotic gesture. After Karen, her sister, had sewn on the tea towel, in 1998, a year after Halliwell performed in the dress, she auctioned it off at the London branch of Sothebys for £41,320. The buyer was Peter Morton, on behalf of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Morton bid via telephone, and beat other bidders such as The Sun. Halliwell herself watched the frenzied bid, as it was described by MTV, the dress was originally valued at £12,000, but eventually it netted £36,200. Halliwell gave the proceeds of the sale to a childrens cancer care charity. The BBC commented on the sale, saying it marks the end of Geris links with the Girl Power image of the past and it holds the Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of popstar clothing dealt at auction. For the 2007 Spice Girls reunion tour, named the Return of the Spice Girls, the new version appeared slightly longer and the flag was made out of rhinestones and Swarovski crystals. It was reported by media outlets that Halliwell had attempted to buy back the original dress prior to the commencement of their world tour. Halliwell stated that ahead of the O2 Arena dates that we are a British band, walking out in the Union Jack dress will be special. Halliwell stated in a interview that she liked the new dress. In 2012 Halliwell designed a clothing range based upon the dress, halliwells official website BRIT Awards official website How to make a Union Jack dress

25.
Geri Halliwell
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Geraldine Estelle Geri Horner is an English pop singer-songwriter, clothes designer, author and actress. In 1998 Halliwell left the Spice Girls, though she rejoined the group when they reunited in 2007, Halliwell reportedly amassed a $30 million fortune during her last two years in the group. She released her studio album Passion in 2005. Halliwell has been nominated for four Brit Awards, after a few years of relative obscurity, in April 2010, Halliwell announced that she had started working on new music. In April 2013, the Nine Network announced that she would become the judge on Australias Got Talent. On 12 September 2013, it was announced that Halliwell would return to the industry in Australia with the release of her first solo single in nearly eight years. With 11 number-one singles, she is the singer with the third-most number-one singles in UK Singles Chart history. Halliwell grew up on an estate in North Watford. She was educated at Watford Grammar School for Girls and Camden School for Girls, before starting her music career, Halliwell had worked as a nightclub dancer in Majorca, as a presenter on the Turkish version of Lets Make a Deal, and as a glamour model. At the age of 19, she appeared in The Sun as a Page 3 girl, following her rise to fame with the Spice Girls, nude photos of Halliwell were republished in a number of magazines in 1992 and 1996 including Playboy and Penthouse. In 1994 Halliwell, along with Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown and Victoria Beckham, around 400 women answered the ad and auditioned at Dance Works studios. After a couple of initial line-up changes, Halliwell, Chisholm, Brown, due to the large interest in the group, the Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for the group. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members delayed signing contracts on the advice from, amongst others. In March 1995, because of the frustration at their managements unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. The group began a relationship with Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, during the summer of that year the group toured record labels in London and Los Angeles with Fuller and finally signed a deal with Virgin Records in September 1995. On 7 June 1996, the Spice Girls released their single, Wannabe. In the weeks leading up to the release, the video for Wannabe got a trial airing on The Box music channel, the song proved to be a global hit, reaching number 1 in 37 countries, becoming the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time. It was followed by nine further singles from their albums Spice, Spiceworld

26.
Spice Girls
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The Spice Girls are an English pop girl group formed in 1994. The group originally consisted of Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and they were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single Wannabe in 1996, which hit number one in 37 countries and established them as a global phenomenon. Their debut album Spice sold more than 31 million copies worldwide and their follow-up album Spiceworld sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Among the highest profile acts in 1990s British popular culture, Time called them arguably the most recognisable face of Cool Britannia, the mid-1990s celebration of youth culture in the UK. The group became one of the most successful marketing engines ever, earning up to $75 million per year, under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, the Spice Girls embraced merchandising and became a regular feature of the British and global press. In 1996, Top of the Pops magazine gave each member of the group aliases, which were adopted by the group and media. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty were the most widely recognised group of individuals since John, Paul, George, with the girl power phenomenon, the Spice Girls were popular cultural icons of the 1990s. They are cited as part of the second wave 1990s British Invasion of the US, in 2016, Mel B, Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell reunited and launched a new website called Spice Girls - GEM. In February 1994, together with financier Chic Murphy, they placed an advertisement in the trade magazine The Stage asking for singers to audition for a pop band at Danceworks studios. A week after the audition, the women were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherds Bush, performing Signed, Sealed, Delivered on their own. During the session, Adams, Brown, Chisholm, Halliwell and Stephenson were selected to the band, the group moved to a house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 training. During the first two months, they worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer/studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter/arranger Tim Hawes. According to Stephenson, the material the group was given was very, very pop, one of the songs they recorded, Sugar and Spice. They also worked on various dance routines at the Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, a few months into the training period, Stephenson was fired from the group and replaced with Emma Bunton. It was also during this time that Halliwell came up with the band name Spice, the group felt insecure about the lack of a contract and was frustrated by the direction in which Heart Management was steering them. In October 1994, armed with a catalogue of demos and dance routines, due to the large interest in the group, the Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members delayed signing contracts on the advice from, among others. In March 1995, the group parted from Heart Management due to their frustration with the unwillingness to listen to their visions

27.
Samantha Fox
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Samantha Karen Fox is an English dance-pop singer, songwriter, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at age 16, she began appearing as a model on Page 3 of British tabloid The Sun. During this time, she became the most popular girl of her era. She later came out as a lesbian, in 1986, she launched her pop-music career with her debut single Touch Me, which hit number one in 17 countries. In 1988, Fox received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Female Artist and she has also appeared in a number of films and reality television shows, and has occasionally worked as a television presenter. Fox was born in Mile End, East London, the eldest daughter of actress Carole Ann Wilken and she has a younger sister, Vanessa, and two half-siblings from her fathers second marriage, Frederica and Frankie. Fox comes from a family of market traders, Fox attended St Thomas More Catholic School, Wood Green and took an interest in the theatre from an early age. She first appeared on a stage at age three, and was enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School from age 15. The next year she got her first record deal, with Lamborghini Records, in 1983, when Fox was 16, her mother submitted several photographs that she had taken of her daughter in lingerie to The Sunday People newspapers Girl of the Year amateur modelling contest. She came in out of 20,000 entrants and the photographs drew her to the attention of the newspaper The Sun. Her parents gave their consent for her to pose topless, and she signed a four-year Page 3 modelling contract with the Sun, and won its Page 3 Girl of the Year award for three consecutive years between 1984 and 1986. She is recognized today as the most popular girl of her era. In 1986, Fox retired from Page 3 modelling, at the age of 20, in 1995, aged 29, she made a one-off appearance in The Sun to promote Page 3s 25th anniversary. After receiving an overwhelmingly positive reader response, she appeared in the every day of that week. The following year, she appeared in the October issue of Playboy magazine, in 2008, Fox was voted the top Page 3 girl of all time. In December 2009, her latest compilation was issued, Greatest Hits, in 2012 her first 4 albums were-re-issued as double deluxe CDs by Cherry Red. In the late 1980s, Fox appeared in advertisements for Leicestershire-based car dealership network with the slogan Follow the Fox to Swithland Motors. Around the same time, she appeared in television adverts for bingo in The Sun newspaper

28.
Mick Fleetwood
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Michael John Kells Mick Fleetwood is a British musician and actor, best known for his role as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of John McVie to form the name of the band, was inducted into the Rock, born in Redruth, Fleetwood lived in Egypt and Norway for many of his childhood years as his father travelled with the Royal Air Force. Fleetwood would remain the only member to stay with the band through its ever-changing line-up, after several album releases and line-up changes, the group moved to the United States in 1974 in an attempt to boost the bands success. Here Fleetwood invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join and he has also enjoyed a solo career, published written works, and flirted briefly with acting and vinification. Michael John Kells Fleetwood was born in Redruth, second child to John Joseph Kells Fleetwood and his elder sister Susan Fleetwood, who died of cancer in 1995, became an actress. In early childhood Fleetwood and his family followed his father, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, after about six years, they moved to Norway where his father was posted on a NATO deployment. He attended school there and became fluent in Norwegian, biographer Cath Carroll describes the young Fleetwood as a dreamer, an empathetic youth who, though intelligent, did not excel academically. According to his own autobiography, Fleetwood had a difficult and trying time academically at the English boarding schools he attended. He performed poorly on exams, which he attributes to his persistent inability to commit facts to memory and he nevertheless enjoyed acting during school, often in drag, and was a competent fencer. At 66, he was a figure, and sported a beard. Mick was very aristocratic, recalls Ken Caillat, an engineer on Rumours. The way he formed sentences was impeccable, when he spoke, everyone stopped and listened. He was quiet and wise, and he had a sense of humour. He loved to laugh, but he was also a straight shooter and his family encouraged his artistic side, his father composed poetry and was an amateur drummer himself. Fleetwoods early drumming was inspired by Cliff Richards drummer in The Shadows, Tony Meehan, with his parents support, he dropped out of school aged 15, and, in 1963, moved to London to pursue a career as a drummer. At first he stayed with his sister in Notting Hill, after a brief stint working at Liberty in London, he found his first opportunity in music. However by April 1965, when Fleetwood joined the band, it was fading into obscurity, by February 1966 Bardens, who had left the group, called on Fleetwood to join his new band, the Peter Bs, which soon expanded to become Shotgun Express. Peter Green, who was a guitarist in the Peter Bs, left to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and his new band already featured John McVie

29.
Russell Brand
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Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host, author, and activist. Beginning his career as a comedian and later becoming an MTV presenter, Brand first achieved notoriety in 2004 as the host of Big Brothers Big Mouth. He also worked as an actor in the animated films Despicable Me in 2010, Hop in 2011, and Despicable Me 2 in 2013. In 2013, he released the successful stand-up special Messiah Complex, in 2014, Brand launched his political-comedy web series The Trews, released a book entitled Revolution, and began work on a documentary about financial inequality with Michael Winterbottom. He has incorporated many of his public antics into his comedic material. In 2015 a biographical documentary called Brand, A Second Coming was released, Russell Edward Brand was born in Orsett Hospital in Grays, Essex, England. He is the child of Barbara Elizabeth and photographer Ronald Henry Brand. Brands parents split up when he was six months old, when he was 7, a tutor sexually abused him. When Brand was 8, his mother contracted uterine cancer and then breast cancer one year later, while she underwent treatment, Brand lived with relatives. When he was 14, he suffered from bulimia nervosa, when he was 16, he left home because of disagreements with his mothers partner. Brand then started to use drugs such as cannabis, amphetamines, LSD. Brand says he had a relationship with his father, whom he saw sporadically. He made his debut at the age of 15 in a school production of Bugsy Malone. Brand attended Grays School Media Arts College and in 1991, he was accepted to the Italia Conti Academy and had his first year of tuition funded by Essex County Council, after his first year at Italia Conti Academy, Brand was expelled for illegal drug use and poor attendance. Brand performed stand-up at the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year final in 2000, although he finished fourth, his performance attracted the attention of Gagged and Bound Comedy Ltd agent Nigel Klarfeld. That year, he made his Edinburgh debut as one-third of the stand-up show Pablo Diablos Cryptic Triptych, alongside ventriloquist Mark Felgate. In 2004, he took his first one-man show, the confessional Better Now, to the Edinburgh Festival and he returned the following year with Eroticised Humour. He launched his first nationwide tour, Shame, in 2006, Brand drew on embarrassing incidents in his own life and the coverage about him in the tabloid press

30.
The O2
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Naming rights to the district were purchased by the mobile telephone provider O2 from its developers, Anschutz Entertainment Group, during the development of the district. AEG owns the long-term lease on the O2 Arena and surrounding leisure space, from the closure of the original Millennium Experience exhibition occupying the site, several possible ways of reusing the Millennium Domes shell were proposed and then rejected. The official renaming of the Dome in 2005 gave publicity to its transition into an entertainment district, the Domes shell itself remained in site, but its interior and the area around North Greenwich Station, the QE2 pier and the main entrance area were completely redeveloped. The area is served by North Greenwich tube station, which was opened just before the exhibition, on the Jubilee line. Thames Clippers operate a boat service for London River Services. As well as a service, Thames Clippers also operates the O2 Express service. Local bus services serve the station and the nearby O2. In popular usage, the canopy is often still called The Dome, reflecting the substantial. The O2 was developed inside the structure by Anschutz Entertainment Group to a design by Populous. In December 2001, it was announced that Meridian Delta, Ltd and it is also hoped to relocate some of Londons tertiary education establishments to the site. Meridian Delta is backed by the American billionaire Philip Anschutz, who has interests in oil, railways, the Dome site was then sub-leased to Anshutz Entertainment Group, who strongly support Meridian Delta, for a minimum of 58 years. English Partnerships leased the arena directly to AEG Europe for 58 years, AEG would develop and operate The O2 during the length of the lease agreements. The lease agreements were made in the agreement that the government would get a percentage of profits through English Partnerships. English Partnerships and Quintain Estates and Development both own land around The O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula and they will release land in stages, to developers, and develop the area in a joint venture with the aid of Meridian Delta. Some of the land is already being developed for offices and shops, ravensbourne, a specialist art and design institution previously located in Chislehurst, moved to a new campus built immediately adjacent to The O2 in September 2010. The David Beckham Academy football school ran nearby from 2005 to 2009, the cost of developing the whole Greenwich Peninsula area was estimated at 4 billion pounds in 2006. As part of the investment programme, naming rights were sold to O2 plc, the £6 million a year deal between O2 plc and AEG also included priority tickets and reserved VIP accommodation for O2 mobile customers. The service was made available to premium ticket holders

31.
Britannia
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It is a term still used to refer to the island today. In AD43 the Roman Empire began its conquest of the island, establishing a province they called Britannia, in the 2nd century, Roman Britannia came to be personified as a goddess, armed with a trident and shield and wearing a Corinthian helmet. After centuries of declining use, the Latin form was revived during the English Renaissance as an evocation of a British national identity. A British cultural icon, she was featured on all modern British coinage series until the redesign in 2008, in 2015 a new definitive £2 coin was issued, with a new image of Britannia. She is also depicted in the Brit Awards statuette, the British Phonographic Industrys annual music awards, the first writer to use a form of the name was the Greek explorer and geographer Pytheas in the 4th century BC. Pytheas referred to Prettanike or Brettaniai, a group of islands off the coast of North-Western Europe, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus referred to Pretannia, a rendering of the indigenous name for the Pretani people whom the Greeks believed to inhabit the British Isles. Following the Greek usage, the Romans referred to the Insulae Britannicae in the plural, consisting of Albion, Hibernia, Thule, over time, Albion specifically came to be known as Britannia, and the name for the group was subsequently dropped. The Roman conquest of the began in AD43, leading to the establishment of the Roman province known in Latin as Britannia. A southern part of what is now Scotland was occupied by the Romans for about 20 years in the mid-2nd century AD, people living in the Roman province of Britannia were called Britanni, or Britons. Ireland, inhabited by the Scoti, was never invaded and was called Hibernia, Thule, an island six days sail north of Britain, and near the frozen sea, possibly Iceland, was also never invaded by the Romans. She appeared on coins issued under Hadrian, as a more regal-looking female figure, Britannia was soon personified as a goddess, looking fairly similar to the goddess Minerva. Early portraits of the goddess depict Britannia as a young woman, wearing the helmet of a centurion. She is usually seated on a rock, holding a spear. Sometimes she holds a standard and leans on the shield, on another range of coinage, she is seated on a globe above waves, Britain at the edge of the world. Similar coin types were issued under Antoninus Pius. After the Roman withdrawal, the term Britannia remained in use in Britain, Latin was ubiquitous amongst native Brythonic writers and the term continued in the Welsh tradition that developed from it. Following the migration of Brythonic Celts, The term Britannia also came to refer to the Armorican peninsula. )The modern English, French, Breton and Gallo names for the area, all derive from a literal use of Britannia meaning land of the Britons. The two Britannias gave rise to the term Grande Bretagne to distinguish the island of Britain from the continental peninsula

32.
Vivienne Westwood
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Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood DBE RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. She is an example of a modern day female impressario, Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for Malcolm McLarens boutique in the Kings Road, which became famous as SEX. It was their ability to synthesise clothing and music that shaped the 1970s UK punk scene, dominated by McLarens band and she was deeply inspired by the shock-value of punk—seeing if one could put a spoke in the system. At the time of Viviennes birth, her father was employed as a storekeeper in an aircraft factory, in 1958, her family moved to Harrow, London. She studied silver-smithing at Harrow School of Art, but left after one term, saying later, after taking up a job in a factory and studying at a teacher-training college, she became a primary school teacher. During this period, she created her own jewellery, which she sold at a stall on Portobello Road, while she continued teaching and simultaneously making jewelry, this led to her discovering design when she met Malcom McLaren who became a major inspiration to her designs in Punk Fashion. In 1962, she met Derek Westwood, a Hoover factory apprentice and they married on 21 July 1962, Westwood made her own wedding dress. In 1963, she gave birth to a son, Benjamin Westwood, when she met Malcolm McLaren, it meant the end of Westwoods marriage to Derek. Westwood and McLaren moved to a flat in Clapham. Westwood continued to teach until 1971 when McLaren opened a boutique at 430 Kings Road called Let It Rock and now Worlds End, Westwood created clothes which McLaren conceived, drawing inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes. During this period, McLaren became manager of the band, the Sex Pistols. In 1967, while living in Clapham, Westwood and McLaren had a son, Westwood was one of the architects of the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way. Essential design elements include the adoption of elements of Scottish design such as tartan fabric. Use of these elements make the overall effect of her designs more shocking. Westwood was the designer who often let her clothes speak for themselves, as independent designs and this idea that she uses her clothing as a statement of her own is a motif consistent throughout her time as a designer. Although this is also a factor as to why she was ridiculed as a designer, it was such a proclamation to his. This idea partially was attributed to her past collaborations with Gary Ness, McLaren and Westwoods first fashion collection to be shown to press and potential international buyers was Pirate. After the partnership with McLaren was dissolved, Westwood showed one more collection featuring the Worlds End label, from 1985-87, Westwood took inspiration from the ballet Petrushka to design the mini-crini, an abbreviated version of the Victorian crinoline

33.
Damien Hirst
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Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the known as the Young British Artists. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly the United Kingdoms richest living artist, during the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to a head in 2003 and the relationship ended. Death is a theme in Hirsts works. He became famous for a series of artworks in which animals are preserved—sometimes having been dissected—in formaldehyde. The best known of these was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living and he has also made spin paintings, created on a spinning circular surface, and spot paintings, which are rows of randomly coloured circles created by his assistants. In September 2008, he took a move for a living artist by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sothebys by auction. Hirst was born Damien Steven Brennan in Bristol and grew up in Leeds and he never met his father, with his mother marrying his stepfather when he was 2 and divorcing 10 years later. His stepfather was reportedly a motor mechanic, Hirsts mother who was from an Irish Catholic background worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau, and has stated that she lost control of her son when he was young. He was arrested on two occasions for shoplifting, however, Hirst sees her as someone who would not tolerate rebellion, she cut up his bondage trousers and heated one of his Sex Pistols vinyl records on the cooker to turn it into a fruit bowl. He says, If she didnt like how I was dressed and she did, though, encourage his liking for drawing, which was his only successful educational subject. His art teacher at Allerton Grange School pleaded for Hirst to be allowed to enter the sixth form and he was refused admission to Jacob Kramer School of Art when he first applied, but attended the college after a subsequent successful application to the Foundation Diploma course. He went to an exhibition of work by Francis Davison, staged by Julian Spalding at the Hayward Gallery in 1983. Davison created abstract collages from torn and cut coloured paper which, Hirst said, blew me away, and which he modelled his own work on for the next two years. He worked for two years on London building sites, then studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, although again he was refused a place the first time he applied. In 2007, Hirst was quoted as saying of An Oak Tree by Goldsmiths senior tutor, Michael Craig-Martin, That piece is, I think, I still cant get it out of my head. While a student, Hirst had a placement at a mortuary and he gained sponsorship from the London Docklands Development Corporation. The show was visited by Charles Saatchi, Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Serota, Hirsts own contribution to the show consisted of a cluster of cardboard boxes painted with household paint

34.
Tracey Emin
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Tracey Emin, CBE, RA is an English contemporary artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text, once the enfant terrible of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts. The same year, she gained media exposure when she swore multiple times in a state of drunkenness on a live discussion programme called The Death of Painting on British television. In 1999, Emin had her first solo exhibition in the United States at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, the artwork featured used condoms and blood-stained underwear. Emins covers a variety of different media, including needlework and sculpture, drawing, video and installation, photography and painting. In December 2011, she was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy, with Fiona Rae, Emin lives in Spitalfields, east London. Emin was born in Croydon, part of Surrey, to an English mother of Romanichal descent, Emins paternal great-grandfather had reportedly been a Sudanese slave in the Ottoman Empire. Via her father, she is of Turkish Cypriot descent, Emin suffered an unreported rape at the age of 13 while living in Margate, citing assaults in the area as what happened to a lot of girls. Her work has been analysed within the context of early adolescent and childhood abuse and she studied fashion at Medway College of Design. There she met expelled student Billy Childish and was associated with The Medway Poets, Emin and Childish were a couple until 1987, during which time she was the administrator for his small press, Hangman Books, which published Childishs confessional poetry. In 1984 she studied printing at Maidstone Art College, which she has described as one of the most influential periods of her life. In 1995 she was interviewed in the Minky Manky show catalogue by Carl Freedman and it was more a time, going to Maidstone College of Art, hanging around with Billy Childish, living by the River Medway. In 1987, Emin moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art, after graduation, she had two traumatic abortions and those experience led her to destroy all the art she had produced in graduate school and later described the period as emotional suicide. Her influences included Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele, and for a time she studied philosophy at Birkbeck, One of the paintings that survives from her time at Royal College of Art is Friendship, which is in the Royal College of Art Collection. Additionally, a series of photographs from her work that were not destroyed were displayed as part of My Major Retrospective. In November 1993, Emin had her first solo show at White Cube, in 1995 Freedman curated the show Minky Manky at the South London Gallery. Emin has said, At that time Sarah was quite famous, Carl said to me that I should make some big work as he thought the small-scale stuff I was doing at the time wouldnt stand up well. Making that work was my way at getting back at him, the result was her tent Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, which was first exhibited in the show

35.
Peter Blake (artist)
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Sir Peter Thomas Blake, CBE, RDI, RA is an English pop artist, best known for co-creating the sleeve design for the Beatles album Sgt. His other best known include the cover of the Band Aid single Do They Know Its Christmas. And the Live Aid concert poster, Blake also designed the 2012 Brit Award statuette. One of the best known British pop artists, Blake is considered to be a prominent figure in the pop art movement, central to his paintings are his interest in images from popular culture which have infused his collages. In 2002 he was knighted at Buckingham Palace for his services to art, born in Dartford,25 June 1932, Kent, he was educated at the Gravesend Technical College school of Art, and the Royal College of Art. During the late 1950s, Blake became one of the best known British pop artists and his paintings from this time included imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements. Blake was included in exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and had his first solo exhibition in 1960. In the Young Contemporaries exhibition of 1961 in which he exhibited alongside David Hockney and R. B. Kitaj, Blake won the John Moores junior award for Self Portrait with Badges. From 1963 Blake was represented by Robert Fraser placing him at the centre of swinging London and his Captain Webb Matchbox piece is another of his works in the pop art movement. On the Balcony is a significant early work remains an iconic piece of British Pop Art. The work, which appears to be a collage but is painted, shows, among other things. It was inspired by a painting by Honoré Sharrer depicting workers holding famous paintings, Workers, Blake has referred to the work of other artists many times. Another example, The First Real Target a standard archery target with the title written across the top is a play on paintings of targets by Kenneth Noland and he designed the sleeve for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band with his wife Jann Haworth, the American-born artist whom he married in 1963, peppers sleeve has become an iconic work of pop art, much imitated and Blakes best-known work. Producing the collage necessitated the construction of a set with photographs and objects, such as flowers. Blake has subsequently complained about the fee he received for the design. Blake made sleeves for the Band Aid single, Do They Know Its Christmas, Paul Wellers Stanley Road and the Ian Dury tribute album Brand New Boots and Panties. He designed the sleeves for Pentangles Sweet Child and The Whos Face Dances, in 1969, Blake left London to live near Bath

36.
Zaha Hadid
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Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE, RA was an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize and she received the UKs most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize, in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was made a Dame by Elizabeth II for services to architecture and she was described by the The Guardian of London as the Queen of the curve, who liberated architectural geometry, giving it a whole new expressive identity. Her major works include the centre for the London 2012 Olympics, Michigan State Universitys Broad Art Museum in the US. Hadid was born on 31 October 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq and her father, Muhammad al-Hajj Husayn Hadid, was a wealthy industrialist from Mosul. He co-founded the left-liberal al-Ahali group in 1932, a significant political organisation in the 1930s and 1940s and he was the co-founder of the National Democratic Party in Iraq. Her mother, Wajiha al-Sabunji, was an artist from Mosul, in the 1960s Hadid attended boarding schools in England and Switzerland. Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving, in 1972, there she studied with Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis and Bernard Tschumi. Her former professor, Koolhaas, described her at graduation as a planet in her own orbit, Zenghelis described her as the most outstanding pupil he ever taught. ‘We called her the inventor of the 89 degrees, nothing was ever at 90 degrees. All the buildings were exploding into tiny little pieces and he recalled that she was less interested in details, such as staircases. The way she drew a staircase you would smash your head against the ceiling, and the space was reducing and reducing and she couldn’t care about tiny details. Her mind was on the broader pictures – when it came to the joinery she knew we could fix that later. She was right. ’ Her fourth-year student project was a painting of a hotel in the form of a bridge, Hadid became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom. She earned her reputation with her lecturing and colorful and radical early designs and projects. Her ambitious but unbuilt projects included a plan for Peak in Hong Kong, and her reputation in this period rested largely upon her teaching and the imaginative and colorful paintings she made of her proposed buildings. In 1989 Fehlbaum had invited Frank Gehry, then little-known, to build a museum at the Vitra factory in Weil-am-Rhein. In 1993, he invited Hadid to design a small station for the factory

37.
Anish Kapoor
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Sir Anish Kapoor, CBE RA, is a British sculptor. Born in Bombay, Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art. He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize, in 1991, he received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Kapoor received a knighthood in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to visual arts and he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Oxford in 2014. In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government which is Indias third-highest civilian award, an image of Kapoor features in the British cultural icons section of the newly designed British passport in 2015. In 2016, he was announced as a recipient of the LennonOno Grant for Peace and he owns exclusive rights to use Vantablack for artistic purposes. Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay, India, to a Hindu father, according to Kapoor, his mother had an Indian-Jewish upbringing, her father being the cantor of the synagogue in Pune. At this time, Baghdadi Jews constituted the majority of the Jewish community in Mumbai and his father, from a Hindu Punjabi family, was a hydrographer in the Indian Navy. Kapoor is the brother of Canada-based academic Ilan Kapoor, Kapoor attended The Doon School, an all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, then in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. He is said to have hated his time at Doon, in 1971–1973, he travelled to Israel with one of his two brothers, initially living on a kibbutz. He began to study engineering, but had trouble with mathematics. In Israel, he decided to become an artist, in 1973, he left for Britain to attend Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea School of Art and Design. There he found a model in Paul Neagu, an artist who provided a meaning to what he was doing. Kapoor went on to teach at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1979 and in 1982 was Artist in Residence at the Walker Art Gallery and he has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s. Anish Kapoor became known in the 1980s for his geometric or biomorphic sculptures made using materials such as granite, limestone, marble, pigment. These early sculptures are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured, using powder pigment to define, while making the pigment pieces, it occurred to me that they all form themselves out of each other. So I decided to give them a title, A Thousand Names, implying infinity. The powder works sat on the floor or projected from the wall, the powder on the floor defines the surface of the floor and the objects appear to be partially submerged, like icebergs

38.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession

39.
Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II
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The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth IIs accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. The anniversary date itself was commemorated in church services across the land on 6 February 1977, in March, preparations started for large parties in every major city of the United Kingdom, as well as for smaller ones for countless individual streets throughout the country. No monarch before Queen Elizabeth II had visited more of the United Kingdom in such a span of time. All in all, the Queen and her husband Prince Philip visited a total of 36 counties, the trip started with record crowds gathering to see the Queen and Prince Philip in Glasgow, Scotland, on 17 May. After moving to England and Wales, the Queen and Prince Philip wrapped up the first of their trips with a visit to Northern Ireland, among the places visited during the national trips were numerous schools, which were the subject of a television special hosted by presenter Valerie Singleton. The final stop on the tour was a trip to Canada. On 6 June, the Queen lit a bonfire beacon at Windsor Castle, the service was followed by lunch in the Guildhall, hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London Peter Vanneck. A further 500 million people around the Commonwealth watched the events on live television. On 7 June, streets and villages threw elaborate parties for all their residents, in addition to parties, many streets decorated motor vehicles as historical events from Britains past, and drove them about town, organising their very own parades. In London alone there were over 4000 organised parties for individual streets, throughout the entire day, onlookers were greeted by the Queen many times as she made several appearances for pictures from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. On 9 June, the Queen made a Royal Progress trip via boat down the River Thames from Greenwich to Lambeth, on the trip, the Queen officially opened the Silver Jubilee Walkway and the South Bank Jubilee Gardens, two of numerous places named after the festivities. In the evening, she presided over a display and was taken subsequently by a procession of lighted carriages to Buckingham Palace. Before, during, and after the events of Jubilee, the event was addressed in many media of popular culture throughout the Commonwealth, the most infamous event marking the Jubilee was the Sex Pistols release of the vehement anti-monarchy song God Save the Queen. The event, a mockery of the Queens river procession planned for two later, ended in chaos. Police launches forced the boat to dock, and constabulary surrounded the gangplanks at the pier, while the band members and their equipment were hustled down a side stairwell, McLaren, Vivenne Westwood, and many of the bands entourage were arrested. With the official UK record chart for Jubilee week about to be released, as it turned out, the record placed second, behind a Rod Stewart single in its fourth week at the top. Many believed that the record had actually qualified for the top spot, McLaren later claimed that CBS Records, which was distributing both singles, told him that the Sex Pistols were actually outselling Stewart two to one. The soap opera Coronation Street wrote an elaborate Jubilee parade into the storyline, ken Barlow and Uncle Albert played Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing respectively

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The London Studios near Waterloo was originally the base for the ITV London weekend contractor LWT but is now ITV's main London headquarters.

Granada Studios was the oldest TV studios in the UK, having been built in 1954 to house the broadcaster of the same name. The studios were closed in June 2013. Granada is the only franchise to remain an ITV contractor since creation in 1954.